Essay · 1918
The Reward of the Artist
by H. L. Mencken · from Damn! A Book of Calumny (1918)
From Damn! A Book of Calumny (1918): H. L. Mencken’s The Reward of the Artist, complete and free to read. Among the things it takes aim at: organized religion, fundamentalism, American democracy.
A man labors and fumes for a whole year to write a symphony in G minor. He puts enormous diligence into it, and much talent, and maybe no little downright genius. It draws his blood and wrings his soul. He dies in it that he may live again.... Nevertheless, its final value, in the open market of the world, is a great deal less than that of a fur overcoat, half a Rolls-Royce automobile, or a handful of authentic hair from the whiskers of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
From Damn! A Book of Calumny (1918). Public-domain text, sourced from Project Gutenberg.